Potpourri

Special Note:  We did not feel Wednesday, April 14th, morning's earthquake in China, epicenter about 1,000 miles south of us.

Tuesday marks one week from when we first started traveling, Jim and I meeting at JFK airport with two succeeding red-eye flights to arrive in Irkutsk, Siberia, Russia. Irkutsk is the capital of the Irkutsk Oblast (region, equivalent to our states in some ways). The city has about 640,000 people and was founded 349 years ago as the administrative outpost for all of Russia to the east which at that time included Alaska.

Starting the Celebration Early

 So Sitka, Alaska, reported to the government in Irkutsk. Irkutsk is at 52° 18' N latitude (about the same as Amsterdam) and 104° 15' E longitude (similar to Singapore).  It is just over 300 miles to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia and 1,000 miles to Beijing).  The city is bisected by the Angara River, the only one to flow out of Lake Baikal. We are on the east bank within 4 blocks of the river. There are several bridges including a new one finished just this year. Our apartment is on Gorkiy Street with a bust of Gorkiy just across the street in a small park.  The red dot on the map below at the top of the B2 grid square marks our apartment.  Look closely, it is small, but I can see it.

Lenin Street parallels the river and is a quarter block away and about a right angle to Gorkiy Street. Karl Marx Street parallels Gorkiy and these three streets seem to bound the university.

Our apartment has a small foyer between the two doors with the space, I'm sure for some extra insulation. There is a small entrance corridor with the first door on the right being the "throne." The toilet is actually up two steps within the WC, so that probably qualifies as a throne.

Another step inside the entrance is a door on the left leading to my small bedroom with a loveseat-sized couch, an armoire, and a twin sized bed. At the foot of the bed is a step ladder and the vacuum cleaner. Also in my room is the iron and ironing board, which I have actually used!
The door opposite mine is the kitchen.

The shower room is off the kitchen.  The above view is from the shower room doorway.  Below is the sink and shower.  Note the spout over the sink swivels to be over the bathtub.

Jim's bedroom is larger; I conceded that to him immediately as it has a desk and I knew he would have more work to do. My bedroom is about 10' x 12' and the entryway from the outside door is about 15 feet long.

Tuesday morning and afternoon is law school classes in American law again.  After that the students watched A Few Good Men in Russian with expectation of discussion on Wednesday.  Jim and I had expectations of dinner at the apartment, but the dining room staff tempted us with байкальский омуль (Baikal omul) a fish that proved as delicious as its reputation.

Wednesday we will finally have a little more free time after classes and Thursday I will be speaking with students on my own without a translator--they are all supposed to have decent English skills.  There is a large medical school here and I am supposed to go to an ophthalmology clinic.  Svetlana, Jim's other translator from two years ago invited us to her house for dinner Friday night.  She has a cute 15 month old boy and is married to a man in Russian internal security who is "very serious."  Saturday is scheduled a train ride around the south end of Lake Baikal with the dean.